It was fast and furious end to end stuff at Highfield Road until just before half-time when referee Dowd took leave of his senses and sent off Stern John for the dreadful offence of rushing an already taken corner. Then with 27 long second half minutes to go he dismissed Matthieu Louis-Jean for having the audacity to win the ball from an opponent. Dare we also mention Marlon's booking, which probably had some bearing on the management's decision to substitute the substitute as the nine men defied all odds to hang on for a spactacular nil:nil draw!
We won the league here and yet at the end from the reactions of all connected with Forest you would have thought that we had just won the Champions League (for a third time). You just had to be there to understand the significance of the result and the occasion.
The character shown by the nine Reds heroes to hang on may have proved to have been a significant turning point in the future history of the Tricky Trees if it weren't for the inevitable sale of key players that followed as the club tried desperately to revive its finances after the massive damage inflicted by Messrs Scholar, Atkinson and Platt. (And yes David got the big promotion as a reward).
The celebrations went on and on as the 4,000 or so faithful sang their hearts out leaving the stadium and going down the streets. The memories of finals and semi-finals at Wembley, Ajax, Munich, Cologne, Madrid et al came flooding back. Like Ebby, our "one decent German", Forest fans come from far and wide. This is why we do it!
Welcome to Norwich City FC! First impressions are always important and yet visitors are housed in what from the outside at least, looks like nothing more than a glorified cattle shed.
Once inside we see that it really is a cattle shed. Okay they are planning to replace this stand, but why do away fans get all of their seats in here. The view was totally obscured for most Forest fans and it took a while for many of us to find our seats due to a strange arrangement which meant that Row A is on the fourth row! Work that one out.
Facilities for home supporters. Charity really does begin at home here!
Go Marlon! He manages to beat the Norwich man to the ball but not the flag of a keen official.
Despite much pressure and skillful, if over played football, Norwich's keeper only had one shot to save as Forest crashed to a dissappointing one: nil defeat.
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There was no coverage from the Wolves match on 25th September 2001. We got past the ban last year (see Season 2000/01) but did not risk being refused admission this time. It was too far to go for nothing! bugcafe is never welcome at Molineux! Their loss!
Where's Ebby? Its hard to spot him in this crowd scene but, as we can see, his banner was on show in a prominent position (as usual) at The City Ground for the Burnley match. Yet another long journey for our "one decent German", but well rewarded by a 1:0 victory over the team placed second on the day.
Here is a great piece of Forest history being made. Straight after the Bartman's 78th minute winning goal, on came 16 year old substitute, Craig Westcarr, to become the youngest ever player to represent Forest at first team level (sorry Gary Mills, your long held record has gone). Straight away he showed no fear by going off on this solo run that almost lead to an unimaginable dream start. The future is bright for Forest with the ambitous and talented youngsters who are now emerging with great regularity... as long as we can afford to keep them!
The New Den. A modern and comfortable stadium, all seated and undercover with a perfect view for everyone, but built in an area that looks like a set from 'The Sweeney'.
The photograph we were not allowed to take. The ground regulations state that no photographs of match action are allowed. So, despite a body search and a big row with three stewards, here is the kick off!
Did they really come to watch the Millwall? Many Millwall fans spent virtually the entire match roaring mass abuse and making some very naughty gestures at the Forest fans whilst the Police and stewards looked on. The 'gentleman' in the black jacket and pink shirt couldn't keep his eyes off of us! At any other ground you would be chucked out and banned for life for being abusive! Yes Kids were expected to witness large scale intimidation. And this is considered to be normal at Milwall!
Back to the football... Darren Ward got down low to push this shot around the post while Forest were one nil down..
Celebrating the first goal of a Stern John hat trick... real collector's piece. He was having a stinker up until this point.
So close and yet so far. Here we see the scoreboard showing Forest with their first away win of the season just seconds away. In a seesaw match which saw Forest come back from one: nil down, to lead two one, followed by an 87th minute Millwall equaliser and then a 90th minute third from Stern John, Forest were to be denied victory by a last gasp Millwall equaliser as Darren Ward went to collect a harmless injury time cross which he dropped into a crowded area, giving the Lions the break they were looking for.
Forest fans made an unbelievable amount of noise and got behind the team, but note the distinct lack of red in this photo. Hardly anyone felt safe enough to attend this match wearing Forest colours. Sadly this exciting 3:3 draw was further spoilt by a delay of around an hour before any Reds fans were allowed to leave the stadium, followed by a special forces escort. On the way to the match Forest coaches had bricks put through windows. Why don't they keep the home fans in and give the visitors a head start in escaping from the war zone. As one Forest fan observed as we were being escorted by squads of riot police, vans full of police, police horses and a helicopter 'gunship' "...this is like Afghanistan." For how much longer do decent followers of football and local residents have to put up with this!
That elusive away victory... this time they finally did it, coming from behind to win with goals from David Johnson and Stern John!
This has to be the most interesting main stand in the league, or should we say main stands (there are four of them after all). At least Watford don't make away fans have to sit in there. Unlike other clubs that could be mentioned, they use the worst part of the ground for home fans and put visitors in one of the other three modern stands. They know how to be hospitable!
Matthieu Louis-Jean and Jermaine Jenas helping to guard the front post as Watford prepare to take a first-half corner.
David Johnson leading one of Forest's counter attacks into the Watford area.
The team celebrating their well earned first away victory after having been denied at the last against Millwall.
Forest's Super fan, Ebby, celebrating this milestone victory before setting off on yet another trip home to Germany.
Forest withstood much pressure before West Brom's Uwe Rosler scored the 33rd minute goal which proved to be enough to overcome the Reds. Here we see the ball coming back off of Darren Ward's post after a first half shot from Neil Clement.
David Johnson lying flat out after a second half attack ended with a collision. Referee Uriah Rennie looks on.
This was one of many menacing second half moments when the ball was whipped across the West Brom goal mouth, only to amount to nothing! Forest have just got to make more of their pressure and dominance of matches. Come on lads do yourselves justice!!!!!
Finally... especially for Reds fan Paul Smith who posted a message in our guestbook to complain about not having his picture on the site, this one is for you. By the way Paul, the pitch was behind you! No wonder you had a poor view of the match! Thanks a lot Paul for helping to publicise the site! Every bit helps. Remember if you like what you have seen tell your friends to visit bugcafe!
Two contrasting views of the outside of the stadium. If arriving from the direction shown on the left then you would be forgiven for thinking that you were approaching a Conference ground. On the other hand if you first saw the ground from behind The Railtrack Stand (Right) then you might think that you had turned up for a Premiership encounter. Sadly 3 sides of the ground are barely good enough for non-league football!
A view of The modern Rail Track Stand from inside the ground. Sadly Crewe's current League form resembles that of the stand's sponsors.
Forest fans occupied 2 of the other 'stands', which although small and close to the pitch, offered unimpeded views of the action in comfortable seating.
Crewe's equivalent of The Trent End containing the massed ranks of Alex fans! This end appears to have been built in true Subbuteo style, with no expense spared on accessories, right down to the plastic ambulabancemen set. Crewe could play a great April Fool's Day joke on fans by selling match tickets for seats in Row H.
There's only one Barry Chuckle! Here is bugcafe's nomination for The Nationwide Steward of the season. Surely it's not Chucklevision's own Barry Chuckle? Well the Forest fans seemed to think so and he played along to give everyone in the surrounding area a good old chuckle! Pity his team couldn't have done a bit of the old "..to me, to you," or given their fans anything to chuckle about as Forest ran out 3:0 winners.
Oh no, Stern John on the floor again in the opposition's penalty area! But this time Crewe are taking the ball out of the back of their net after he knocked in Forest's third following coming on as substitute to replace two goal hero David Johnson. And his team mates came over to congratulate him on rounding off a perfect day for Forest. It was a fun day out for all reds fans... so thanks to all at Crewe!
These four photographs show all of the areas of the ground for 'home' fans at Selhurst! They were taken minutes after kick-off! This is how full, or should we say empty, most grounds are half an hour before the teams come onto the pitch! It should not be forgotten that the attendance figure was helped along by a protest at this match involving fans from clubs across the country.
This was the view facing Forest fans who had tickets in the back half of the stand. Why couldn't away fans be housed in the empty top-tier of the huge stand behind the goal?
The pillars completely obscure the view of the goals in some parts of this stand!
David Prutton shown here on the half-way line where much of the first half action took place.
Forest went down one:nil without much of a fight and were probably lucky that it wasn't far worse. Once Wimbledon had eventually scored through Wilmott's 66th minute header, after fluffing a string of clear-cut opportunities, Forest never looked like getting back into it.
The loyal Reds' fans had to endure freezing cold, a crap match and an empty stadium with an atmosphere like a morgue! To top that the lads gave us nothing to sing about!
Wimbledon won and yet their fans still stayed in for ten minutes to protest against moving out of London. But with so few of them to protest, as shown by this photo and the attendance of 5,920 (including some 2,000 Reds' fans), is there any point in the Dons carrying on, let alone going to Milton Keynes?
Forest have much greater support and yet are financially ruined, so Wimbledon's owners have got to do something desperate if they are to survive! Surely it would be cheaper and easier to sack the fans rather than the board.
One week before Christmas Forest and Forest were down to 17th in the First Division and in for a long haul!
After 2 home wins and 2 away draws over the successful Christmas and new year period Forest went to Sheffield United to begin their FA Cup campaign along with over 4,000 eager Reds' fans. Sadly United fans weren't able to match our enthusiasm for the occasion with only around 15,000 in total turning up! Note the empty seats in the home areas.
Who says lightning can't strike twice...early on Darren Ward almost provided Sheffield United with a similar goal to that he gifted Manchester City at the City Ground earlier in the season. His gentle kick to United's forwards was squandered on this occasion by a disbelieving opposition. Here we can see Darren getting treatment for an 'injury' to the foot that delivered that pass to United just seconds after that incident. The treatment given must have been pretty amazing as straight after the restart Darren used the very same foot to deliver a stationary ball into the opposing half of the field without as much as a wince!
Was he injured or just trying to cover up for his embarrassment at having virtually repeated his City howler? - You decide!
Forest's overall performance was poor to say the least. Here (still at nil:nil) we see Forest preparing to defend a second half free kick in dangerous territory after Ricky Scimeca had been dispossessed whilst in a very comfortable position in the United half!
Perhaps this summed up our day as Forest had to do much defending and were unable to keep possession of the ball for long enough when pressing forward to create any real chances for the strikers!
Shortly after Michael Brown had given United a 78th minute lead Forest were awarded a late free kick near the corner flag. Stern John is pictured here moving into place to attempt an equaliser at the far post.
Sadly his resulting header went just over the bar.
And this late free kick awarded on the edge of the United area amounted to nothing either and so Forest went crashing out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle.
Even the 89th minute arrival onto the pitch of substitute David Johnson, who had been billed as "...the one to watch..." in the match programme, was not enough to rescue the Reds' day!
Well at least bugcafe was able to feature the Reds' entire FA Cup run this season. And sadly we went on to spend much longer reading about the FA Cup in the newspapers than Forest were in it!
Fortunately on such a wet and windy February afternoon this extension of the visitors end wasn't needed. Perhaps more Reds' fans would have felt like making the trip if we hadn't just sold Stern John and Jermaine Jenas!
The most modern stand in the ground, which was half empty and perhaps out of place.
If there were a Nationwide Division One competition for the worst Main Stand then maybe this one would meet Watford's in the final.
Despite the poor view obscured by numerous posts and a low roof at least the Reds' fans that made the journey were dry and safely tucked-up out of the elements.
The Nationwide League meets Coronation Street as Forest prepare to take a first half free kick. Stockport have no executive boxes so there is a niche in the market for enterprising householders on this street with a spare front bedroom. Interestingly net curtains didn't twitch as no one appeared at any of the windows to watch the match!
With a ground like this, attendances of around 6,000, absolutely no atmosphere in the ground and the two Manchester giants right on their doorstep, Stockport should consider a Wimbledon style move to Milton Keynes.
You would have been forgiven for thinking that we had come on a plane spotting expedition as during a dull and goalless first half the main action was in the skies on the flight path to Manchester airport.
Veteran County keeper Andy Dibble was stretchered off at nil:nil in the second half. This was probably the turning point of the game.
Unexpected celebrations after Reds' fans had spent much of the game in despair as Gary Jones, in true Stern John style, was having a nightmare of a match until he scored Forest's opening goal, the Reds' first since new year's day.
Marlon Harewood seriously struggled to put his shirt back on following his wild celebration run after scoring Forest's second.
They may have got our name unforgivably wrong but at least they got the score spot on. A late come back from County following Carlton Palmer's strike was to be thwarted as, under tremendous pressure from Marlon Harwood, Stockport's Leo Roget lobbed his own keeper (substitute goalie Lee Jones) to score an own goal to seal the day for Forest.
February 2nd and at last our first win of 2002! The lads deserved to celebrate a job well done at the end of a very difficult week, but the opposition hadn't won any of their last 14 matches!
Brrrrrrr! What a bitterly cold day! Despite a swirling Arctic gale coming in off of the Trent Sherwood tried to warm up the atmosphere inside the City Ground before a mostly drab encounter with Wimbledon. Forest had an Andy Gray goal disallowed after just 65 seconds and straight from the restart Wimbledon's Patrick Agyemang hit the Forest post at the other end. The promise of these early moments was not to be met as the game quickly settled into a boring pattern!
Jack Lester in the thick of the action as Forest attempted to press their second half advantage home but to no avail.
Perhaps one of the most interesting pieces of action from this match, but what exactly was the intention behind these moves (or perhaps overtures) that the Wimbledon substitutes were engaging in?
This match was watched by a a crowd of 24,292. Unfortunately, as can be seen from this photograph of the away following, the Dons didn't contribute much to the gate. Still this shows the strength of Forest's support, particularly when viewed alongside current league position. As for Wimbledon, well why do they bother carrying on?
Jim Brennan on a second half run which saw him leave Wimbledon's Neil Ardley in his wake.
David Prutton played throughout with the help of 'Band Aid' after sustaining a head injury that, resulted in four stitches, during the midweek clash against Wolves. On 81 minutes he was at the centre of the action as Wimbledon's David Connolly was shown the Red card for lashing out at him after a clumsy challenge.
Late chances included Jack Lester hitting the Don's post from about two inches out and a position where it was probably harder to miss than score.
As a result of this goalless draw and draws for both Sheffield United and Gillingham, Forest remained in 14th place in the table.
Half of Gillingham's ground is brand spanking new with undercover seating...
...but most of the Forest faithful were not situated in these areas of the ground.
Sadly most of the Forest faithful were made to stand up outside in the rain on very shallow terracing. Lucky old supporters' club chairman Mel Hart (pictured centre with red arms) managed to get a nice seat in the dry.
Even TV crew's have it cushy at The Priestfield Stadium in this rather odd gantry.
Unfortunately our terraced view point made photography during the match almost impossible!
And it was clearly stated on the back of the match ticket that cameras were banned from the ground and the taking of photographs of any part of the match was strictly forebidden...
...so here's the kick off.
Here we see Forest preparing to defend a first half free-kick whilst leading one:nil ofter a bizarre 10th minute Jack Lester goal which was laid on a golden plate for him by Gill's keeper Brown who fell over the ball while trying to clear it.
Gill's striker Onorura ends up lying flat out on top of Reds' keeper Darren Ward after a Gillingham shot bounced out off the Forest post.
Forest had a nightmare of a second half in which they conceded three goals to see them comprehensively beaten. This was one of the few occasions that they got forward only for the move to break down harmlessly.
The Reds'fans deserved the clap from the players, for endurring the elements and the embarrassment of seeing their team beaten 3:1 (despite being given a one goal start) at a place like this. And it could have been far worst!
This result underlined Forest's position in the bottom half of the table!
Forest finished the season in a very disappointing 16th Position in The Nationwide League First Division with 54 Points (P46, W12, D18, L16, F 50, A 51, GD-1) having been knocked out of both the League and FA Cups in the 3rd Round.
Still it could have been much much worse if our end of season slide had begun a couple of weeks earlier, with Forest only finishing 5 points clear of the relegation Zone! And the Reds' financial nightmare seems to have been resolved!
Finally and by no means least, Derby were relegated, along with Leicester, so we have the exciting prospect of four East Midlands derby matches to look forward to next season.
To access our photo-reports from the 2000/01 and 2002/03 Seasons click on 'Galleries'.
